While the coastwise trade between the colonies was still
preeminently important as a means of transporting commodities, by
the beginning of the eighteenth century the land routes from New
York to New England, from New York across New Jersey to
Philadelphia, and those radiating from Philadelphia in every
direction, were coming into general use
While the coastwise trade between the colonies was still
preeminently important as a means of transporting commodities, by
the beginning of the eighteenth century the land routes from New
York to New England, from New York across New Jersey to
Philadelphia, and those radiating from Philadelphia in every
direction, were coming into general use. The date of the opening
of regular freight traffic between New York and Philadelphia is
set by the reply of the Governor of New Jersey in 1707 to a
protest against monopolies granted on one of the old widened
Indian trails between Burlington and Amboy. ‘At present,’ he
says, ‘everybody is sure, ONCE A FORTNIGHT, to have an
opportunity of sending any quantity of goods, great or small, at
reasonable rates, without being in danger of imposition; and the
sending of this wagon is so far from being a grievance or
monopoly, THAT BY THIS MEANS AND NO OTHER, a trade has been
carried on between Philadelphia, Burlington, Amboy, and New York,
which was never known before.’
